World News: Vancouver server warns people after she lost $8K in Bitcoin CRA scam

Another day, another scam. Here in Canada most people are getting used to random numbers calling us up to let us know that we apparently owe a bunch of back taxes. It's usually followed up with a lot of aggressive words and them spinning tales of us rotting away in a prison somewhere unless we cough up the money. In the past, they have been happy to accept gift cards and other anonymous forms of payment. I mean, which government run business would turn down a few thousand coffee's from Starbucks? Or electronics from Amazon? Seems like a sound way to pay one's taxes to me.

Fast forward to yesterday. Just when I thought people couldn't possibly keep falling for Canada Revenue Agency scams, another one has. I thought the purpose of running stories about these scams almost on a weekly basis across Canadian news outlets would have done its job. But I guess some people still didn't get the memo. A story of a young lady having transferred $8,000 CAD to some random bitcoin account through a bitcoin ATM machine to pay owed taxes has made headlines. I feel bad for her, of course I do. We all work hard for money and it's a shame when it disappears. But why was there no point when she was asking herself, why am I paying the national tax office through a bitcoin ATM in some little coffee shop??? I'll leave it at that.

Cryptocurrency has been no stranger to scams, that's for sure. Every week or two seems to unveil a new way for people to get swindled. Whether it's crypto, taxes, or buying a candy bar down at the 7-11, we can't forget to use our heads out there. Do your homework. Ask questions. If something seems too good to be true... too cheap... too easy... there's a good chance you'll come out on the losing end. So on that note, let's all remember to keep our eyes open and our brains switched on!